Britain

The Economist/Ipsos-MORI issues index

Doling it out

NOT since before the millennium has joblessness vexed the British so much. According to an opinion poll conducted for The Economist earlier this month by Ipsos MORI, two-fifths of the population think that unemployment is among the most pressing problems facing the country, the highest level of concern in 13 years, up four percentage points from the previous month.

The fear is well-founded: the total number of people without work is at its highest for 17 years. Half of those who cited it said unemployment was the greatest threat facing Britain. Young people and Labour voters tended to be more concerned than were older people and Conservative voters.

Although the economy remains the primary concern, its dominance over other issues has declined to 15 percentage points from 33 points in December 2011. Some 55% of Brits said they fretted about it, down two percentage points from the previous month.

"The March opinion poll was prescient about petrol: it found a seven percentage point rise in the proportion of people who thought high fuel prices worrisome weeks before reports of potential shortages provoked panic buying."

What? The panic buying was a result of threatened industrial action by fuel tanker drivers, not high prices. Rather sloppy analysis...